Found A Rolex Explorer I With A WHITE Dial, For Sale At Christie's Geneva

I love the Rolex Explorer I. It's the little brother in the Rolex
sports watch family, it was my first Rolex, and regularly it gets left
out of the all the mega-Rolex hoopla that we so often see at auctions
with rare versions of Daytonas, Subs, and GMT's bringing in big bucks.
So, when we opened up the Christie's Geneva May catalog and saw the
watch here, we knew we had to cover it. It is a seriously rare watch,
and it happens to be an Explorer I.

I love the Rolex Explorer I. It's the little brother in the Rolex sports watch family, it was my first Rolex, and regularly it gets left out of the all the mega-Rolex hoopla that we so often see at auctions with rare versions of Daytonas, Subs, and GMT's bringing in big bucks. So, when we opened up the Christie's Geneva May catalog and saw the watch here, we knew we had to cover it. It is a seriously rare watch, and it happens to be an Explorer I.

Dating to 1958, this is a reference 6610, the predecessor to the commonly seen 1016. The case is in fantastic shape with nice thick lugs, and everything on this guy is original...including its WHITE dial. Yes, white. As many of you know, Submariners, GMT's, and Explorers all come with black dials. Except when they don't. You see, from time to time, the very odd white dial sport watch shows up, and some cry foul, and others cry glory. Eric Ku showed us a completely legitimate white dial Sub here, and there are rumors that executives at PAN-AM recceived white dial 6542 GMT's way back when, but that has never been confirmed (read a serious white dial GMT thread here).

It is the doubts with Rolex that make collecting so challenging, and rewarding. Rolex will never confirm they made a white dial Explorer, but popular belief is that they did, no matter how rare. And Christie's has assured us they've gone to great lengths to confirm that this example is indeed absolutely original. And that makes this watch very rare, and very cool. It was also the first time we've seen a white dial Explorer in the metal. Christie's Geneva has this rare bird in at betwen $10,000 and $16,000. More details are available here.